Daily Prophet Discovers
by annabelthegreat
Summary: What happens if the Daily Prophet discovers what happened during those years on Privet Drive? Open ended one-shot...


A/N OK, this is a daily prophet article and some reaction to Harry Potter's home life, if they discovered what happened... I leave the ending open, you can either adopt and continue writing it (as long as this one shot can stay on my profile) or just imagine what could happen.

Reviews appreciated

I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING, EXCEPT MY BRAIN, WELL I MIGHT NOT EVEN OWN THAT. TO CLARIFY IN THIS CONTEXT. I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER...

Happy reading

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Daily Prophet 25th September 2000

The Chosen one: Abused?

Whilst we were all celebrating the fall of Voldemort for the first time, the newly labelled Boy-Who-Lived was shipped off to his muggle relatives, and we all forgot he was an orphaned boy, who had just lost his parents and was now going to an unknown place, to his aunt and uncle, who notoriously hated magic, how, then did he fair in that house? We know very little about his time in that place, I went to Privet Drive, where our saviour grew up, it was a very boring place, every house was the same, with nosy occupants looking through the windows to the stranger walking amongst them, I decided to pretend to be an old school friend of Harry's, with whom I had lost touch, I only did this once, as I went up to one house, and asked the lady if they knew where he was, this is what happened;

Me: *Rings Doorbell*

Occupant: *opening door* Yes? How may I help you? (this is where I made a fatal mistake)

Me: I am an old friend of Harry Potter's (at the mention of his name she visibly paled and began to close the door) and I was wondering if you knew where he was…

I now saw that it was futile, something had obviously happened to make the street scared of Harry Potter, as each time I mentioned I knew him, people made their excuses and left, I finally asked someone why they were scared of him, they said it was because he was a hardend criminal, I almost laughed out loud, I replied that he was the complete opposite, they then scoffed and told me the things they had heard about 'the boy' as they kept calling him, his relatives spread the rumour that he went to 'St Brutus's School for Criminal Boys' I really did laugh at this one, I then had to clarify that he went to a school in Scotland for gifted children, she really did not believe me, but then came into a realisation 'I always knew there was something wrong in that house' she continued 'the Dursleys were always putting down their nephew and lauding their pig of a son, now that I think about it, all that I remember of Harry was a gentle boy, who was always down, when with his relatives, there was always shouting when he was home for the summer, really I don't blame the boy for only coming home when he had to, his uncle was awful to him, his clothes were always baggy, like and probably were hand me downs from his cousin, and he did the gardening a lot, after his first year at that school of his, I remember he was working all day in the garden, whilst his cousin goaded him, that pig of a boy, size and weight of a baby whale by the time he was 14, and a brute, threw stones at cars, and beat up 10 year olds, for fun, Hmph' I am beginning to build up a picture of our saviours life, whilst we all thought he was being worshipped, he was being forced to work, by those who were supposed to love him, probably starved if this woman's description of 'perpetually underweight' is anything to go by, which I think it is, as I was coming to these conclusions this neighbour of the chosen one came out with something, very shocking, 'I once heard Vernon (his uncle) shouting at him to go to his cupboard, I had no idea about anything, I just though he was ordering him to get something from his room, but I once went into their house, when Harry and Dudley (his cousin) must have been about 9, and there was a lock on the cupboard under the stairs, I just thought they hid their valuable their when guests came over or because, I came to this conclusion after hearing the rumours about the boys criminal habits, they were afraid that Harry would nick all their valuables, but now looking back on it, I think he slept there!' well there you have it folks… Harry Potter was abused by his 'relatives' after he was abandoned on their doorstep aged 1 year old. Who was responsible for this atrocity? Did anyone check up on the Boy-Who-Lived, or was he just left to fend for himself? I will try and get an interview with the immensely private Harry Potter, maybe he will consent to an interview to dispel or confirm these conclusions.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall placed the Daily Prophet down on the table, she could see the other teachers pale at the article they were also reading, and she looked over to the Gryffindor table, she saw roughly half of the Weasley/Potter clan reading the prophet, the Potters looking most upset and distressed, and the Hall peering at them more than normal. Minerva then had a desire to look at Potter's school record, to remind herself that he was OK and came out of that house OK. She rushed to her office, Found his record looked at the top, where all the addresses they had on record for him. She looked at the address his first Hogwarts letter was addressed to, and balked.

Mr H Potter

The Cupboard under the Stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

She stalked up to Dumbledore's portrait and said in a deathly calm voice

"Did. You. Know?"

"Know what Minerva?" Dumbledore said, perplexed on her sudden anger.

"About Harry Potter's, your most prized student's home life"

"Ah" was all Dumbledore could say...


End file.
